Netflix confirms it killed AirPlay support, won’t let you beam shows to Apple TVs anymore

[The AchieVer]

Netflix confirms it killed AirPlay support, won’t let you beam shows to Apple TVs anymore

 

A “technical limitation” 

 

With no warning and little explanation, Netflix has removed the easiest way to sling its shows from one Apple device to another: AirPlay.

 

Netflix confirmed to The Verge that it pulled the wireless casting feature this past week, due to what it’s calling a “technical limitation.” But it’s not the kind of technical limitation you’d think. 

You see, Apple recently partnered with most of the major TV brands to allow AirPlay 2 to send shows directly to their 2019 TV sets with a firmware update later this year, but a Netflix spokeperson tells me AirPlay 2 doesn’t have digital identifiers to let Netflix tell those TVs apart — and so the company can’t certify its users are getting the best Netflix experience when casting to those new sets.

So now, it’s throwing out the baby with the bathwater and pulling the plug on AirPlay, period. “We can’t distinguish which device is which, we can’t actually certify the devices... so we’ve had to just shut down support for it,” a Netflix spokesperson says.

To be clear, that means Apple TV set-top box users can no longer cast Netflix, either.

 

Here’s the company’s official statement:

 

As spotted by MacRumors earlier today, the company’s official support page now includes this phrase: “Airplay is no longer supported for use with Netflix due to technical limitations.” 

 

It’s a little weird and misleading, though, because we’re not talking about a situation where the technology doesn’t work — apparently it just doesn’t look quite as nice as Netflix wanted, and Netflix, Apple and the TV manufacturers can’t be bothered to fix it. 

 

Maybe Netflix wasn’t prepared for a new wave of AirPlay 2-enabled TVs, and can’t justify spending the technical resources to upgrade its AirPlay implementation to support them properly. Maybe it’s Apple or Samsung, LG, Vizio and company who can’t justify the spend to fix the “limitation.” Maybe Netflix will even reinstate support after things get figured out, though a spokesperson strongly suggested to me that the ball is in Apple’s court now. Apple declined to comment.

RELATED

Here are all of the TVs getting AirPlay 2 in 2019

Without a fuller explanation, it’s hard to resist thinking that Netflix is intentionally snubbing Apple for some reason, perhaps to build a wall around its subscribers, or perhaps to gain more negotiating leverage. (Netflix denies this: “It’s not a business competition play.”) 

 

But both Apple and those TV manufacturers want to be able to use Netflix to sell fancy new AirPlay 2-enabled TVs to users, so it’s in their interests to make things work. Why aren’t they?

 

There is a strong potential reason for an Apple-Netflix spat: Netflix recently decided it wasn’t going to be part of Apple’s new TV Plus subscription video service, preferring to stay a competitor.

Peter Kafka

 

✔@pkafka

 

 

Reed Hastings confirms that Netflix won't be a part of the new Apple video hub announced next week. "Apple’s a great company. We want to have people watch our shows on our services.”

 

 

 

And it wouldn’t be the first time we’ve seen a cold war between two companies who want control over streaming TV users — Amazon stopped stocking Google’s Chromecast for three years, using its own platform in an anti-competitive way, while it refined its own rival Fire TV products.

 

It’s true that most smart TVs already have Netflix built-in these days, and there’s no shortage of other ways to get that content on your TV screen. Unfortunately for Apple users, one of the most convenient ways is now winking out.

 

 

Source

[halvgris]

great going guys!

 

we pirate the stuff and view it any way we like.

[steven36]

2 hours ago, halvgris said:

great going guys!

 

we pirate the stuff and view it any way we like.

Netflix  don't have much to offer noway outside of there original  content  and witch  it all can be  pirated   with new streaming services coming by Disney and others there pulling most of there contracts  with  Netflix   and  Netflix  try  to cover too many regions they release many shows that will never be able to  compete with the  other networks in the USA because there not even in English so for people in the USA  even HULU  is really  a better option  , there picking on Apple but  Google   witch  has more users with Android  already have a streaming service . So there being big babies is all  and what there doing want be effective in the long run ,

 

All the Big ISPs  and Networks in the USA  and the EU are tried of  not making no money because they ruled every since they was television  so there banning there shows on Netflix  and put them on there own streaming services to get all there profit back.  So internet streaming becomes very expensive like cable and satellite   because you need 3 or 4 services to cover what you use to get on one.  But with  piracy  you can just watch the shows and movies you like from each provider  and that's the way it's always been  with it , that's the reason i never bought into paid streaming services to begin with  Torrent sites have higher quality  4k  and 1080p  movies  witch are pure BLU-RAY  than any streaming site has to offer and by paying a few dollars a month less than just Netfilx  you can stream it with Kodi  or download it and keep it forever,  Also you can watch for it free with Kodi  form torrents and things  but the risk goes way up so you need  a to buy a VPN and still a download service for torrents and filehost is cheaper than a VPN   . Also a VPN is not risk free if you don't use a kill switch you still may get caught .

[Karlston]

Users Are The Losers —

Netflix ends AirPlay support on iOS in an ongoing souring of its Apple relationship

Change was made because of AirPlay support on new devices like LG, Samsung TVs.

Enlarge / The Apple TV 4K and remote.

Samuel Axon

Netflix has confirmed that it no longer supports AirPlay, citing "technical limitations" with Apple's video-slinging feature. The reasoning isn't exactly about technical limitations that prevent Netflix from supporting the feature at all, though. Rather, Netflix has either chosen not to support it because the company can't control the user experience the way it wants to or because of bigger issues of competition and collaboration between the two companies.

 

AirPlay is a feature in Apple devices (and now in some third-party devices from partners like LG and Samsung) that allows streaming audio or video from one gadget to another over the local network. A few days ago, users began noticing that they could no longer use AirPlay in the iOS Netflix app, and MacRumors discovered that a support document on Netflix's website had been updated to say, "Airplay is no longer supported for use with Netflix due to technical limitations."

 

Netflix soon elaborated with an official statement to certain press outlets covering the story. Here's the statement:

We want to make sure our members have a great Netflix experience on any device they use. With AirPlay support rolling out to third-party devices, there isn’t a way for us to distinguish between devices (what is an Apple TV vs. what isn’t) or certify these experiences. Therefore, we have decided to discontinue Netflix AirPlay support to ensure our standard of quality for viewing is being met. Members can continue to access Netflix on the built-in app across Apple TV and other devices.

Starting at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in January, major TV-makers announced support for AirPlay, whereas users could previously typically only stream content to their TVs via AirPlay by using an Apple TV set-top box or plugging another Apple device into the TV via the HDMI port. (Some third-party devices did already support AirPlay, though—for example, the Sonos One.)

 

The way Apple has implemented AirPlay, Netflix does not have access to information about the device to which a user is streaming. It could be an Apple-made streaming box, or it could be a Samsung TV, among other things. Netflix is arguing that not having this information means it can't certify the target device to ensure a quality experience.

 

While that might technically be true, there are definitely possible design approaches that would circumvent that issue, and it's perplexing that Netflix doesn't seem to have the same policy regarding Android TV devices that support Chromecast. (Chromecast is an AirPlay-like feature offered by Google.)

 

Observers have understandably raised the question of whether Netflix is doing this to undermine Apple for launching a competing streaming video service in Apple TV+, but a Netflix spokesperson told The Verge, "It’s not a business competition play."

 

Another possibility is that Apple prevents Netflix from accessing user data the company wants via AirPlay on those third-party TVs and other devices. Some observers on Reddit and Slashdot have also speculated that this could be an anti-piracy play—but the continued, unfettered Chromecast support pokes a hole in that idea.

 

Finally, it's possible that Netflix has simply reasoned that it can offer a quality app experience on the Apple TV, so it can afford to drop this feature there—but it can't on Chromecast, so it has to leave this door open for Chromecast or else give up on being able to serve the large number of customers who own Chromecast solutions. In other words, Netflix might be making a very Apple move of forcing users to access its service via the method it can control most completely.

 

Even if we take Netflix's word that this is not about business competition, this is the latest in a series of limitations in how Netflix and Apple services work together—or rather, how they don't.

 

Netflix was a glaring omission from Apple's TV app on iOS devices and the Apple TV. The app rounds up the latest content from multiple streaming platforms (from Hulu to HBO Now to network apps like Comedy Central) in one feed for the user. Netflix recently announced that it would not participate in Apple's new video service which expands on that concept, and it also ended the ability to subscribe to the Netflix service through Apple's billing system (thus avoiding giving Apple an admittedly significant cut of the revenue). Also, Netflix's new interactive series like Bandersnatch do not work on the Apple TV.

 

Netflix still offers native apps for the Apple TV and iOS devices, but that's the bare minimum. It's hard to determine whether Netflix, Apple, or both are ultimately responsible for the current state of affairs—there are likely some aspects to all this that are not publicly visible—but users seem to be the ones paying the price for the ongoing failure of these two companies to work productively together on cutting-edge, positive user experiences.

 

Source: Netflix ends AirPlay support on iOS in an ongoing souring of its Apple relationship (Ars Technica)